If you read around here enough I have posts on both of these companies and now it appears they are trying to figure out how to make devices work together and especially gain some appeal with seniors. Cambridge is the company that created that exotic Blue Tooth Inhaler that I first wrote about a couple years ago that has a data system prepared to collect all your inhaling activity and send it off somewhere as well as a bottle now that will tell you when to drink water. I know it’s some interesting stuff out there. The Minder system works with the blue tooth inhaler.

Phillips also has this device called the DirectLife monitoring system that is a necklace type thing you wear around your neck that records data and does some interesting other suggestive things like telling you to take your laundry outside and get the exercise from hanging it on a clothesline I think.

Here’s a video on the Auto Alert Pendant and how it works and measures all your movements and heart rates. It has a microprocessor the is the brain and calls a lifeline call center. I just wonder how much other data it collects and who gets it with privacy issues today and if it only goes to a call center then ok, but we all know this probably goes into a data base for analytics purposes of some sort. The companies will present their efforts on Monday, May 16th the 9th annual Front End of Innovation (FEI 2011) in Boston. BD

Press Release:

Cambridge, UK and MA – May 13th, 2011 –Cambridge Consultants, a leading technology design and development firm, and Philips Home Monitoring announced today they will be giving a joint presentation on the innovation process that produced the Philips Lifeline with AutoAlert, an enhanced medical alert device and service. The discussion, “Attaining successful crowd resonance: driving technical innovation with meaningful consumer insights,” will take place on Monday, May 16th for technology and business experts attending the 9th annual Front End of Innovation (FEI 2011) in Boston.

Worn around the neck, Lifeline with AutoAlert features the only pendant-style help button that automatically calls for help if a fall is detected and the wearer is unable to push the help button. As the device detects a fall, it automatically sends signals to caregivers, loved-ones or emergency services via a Philips Lifeline call center. An operator can also communicate directly with the subject through two-way speakerphone capabilities.

The Lifeline with AutoAlert, a leading-edge technical solution, is the end-result of a systematic and well-honed process that was bent on making the best product possible out of a host of consumer insights. The device had to meet a number of challenges posed by this wide range of stakeholders, many of which seemed to conflict with one another. Philips Healthcare initiated extensive research and trials, starting with end-users, and identified a number of the technological challenges. Cambridge Consultants’ Innovation Management team was enlisted to make sense of the myriad consumer needs and, working with the Philips team, devised five unique product concepts that could potentially spur mass appeal.

“In order to calculate the potential impact of a product for the elderly, we had to be sure we knew exactly what made the most sense to the community of potential stakeholders: caregivers, seniors, referral sources and others,” said Rob Goudswaard, Senior Director Product & Services Innovation at Philips Home Monitoring. “Through our collaboration with Cambridge Consultants, the effective use of workshops helped us to crystalize the data we had amassed into a diverse range of product concepts in the area of fall prevention and fall detection.”

“The challenge quickly becomes how to make a successful product that is meaningful to each consumer constituency,” said Lucy Rowbotham, Consulting Director, Head of Innovation Management at Cambridge Consultants. “In this case where the user is an elderly person, we were forced to conceive ideas for individuals who many times are reluctant to admit their own needs. However, using our unique innovation management approach, we were able to aggregate and evaluate all of the different data sets and churn out practical technology concepts that were attractive to not only users, but buyers and endorsers as well.”

The development process that ultimately sparked the Philips Lifeline with AutoAlert, began with the five product concepts ranging from the height and motion sensing technology seen in the Philips Lifeline with AutoAlert, to a light-based solution.

Philips Healthcare reports that more than half of new customers opt for the Philips Lifeline AutoAlert premium service for the elderly, which was launched in 2010.

This announcement builds on Cambridge Consultants’ expertise in elderly health and wellness technologies. The company recently collaborated with Tufts University students to explore design parameters for elderly health management technology concepts. Through a series of focus groups, the elderly subjects collectively expressed sensitivities to privacy, a social stigma around cell phones and PDAs, nearly unanimous problems with eyesight and an unwillingness to mine through inessential data. Cambridge Consultants has also developed several wireless health and wellness applications that are designed to connect patients and their treatment devices, such as inhalers, with healthcare support professionals and a range of online applications.

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Cambridge Consultants develops breakthrough products, creates and licenses intellectual property, and provides business consultancy in technology critical issues for clients worldwide. For 50 years, the company has been helping its clients turn business opportunities into commercial successes, whether they are launching first-to-market products, entering new markets or expanding existing markets through the introduction of new technologies. With a team of over 300 engineers, designers, scientists and consultants, in offices in Cambridge (UK) and Boston (USA), Cambridge Consultants offers solutions across a diverse range of industries including medical technology, industrial and consumer products, transport, energy, cleantech and wireless communications. For more information visit: www.CambridgeConsultants.com

Cambridge Consultants is part of Altran, the European leader in innovation and high technology consulting. The Group’s 17,500 consultants, operating worldwide, cover the entire range of engineering specialties, including electronics, information technology, quality and organization. Altran offers its clients ongoing support throughout the innovation cycle, from technology watch, applied basic research and management consulting to industrial systems engineering and information systems. The Group provides services to most industries, including the automotive, aeronautics, space, life sciences and telecommunications sectors. Founded in 1982, Altran operates in 20 priority countries. In 2008, it generated a turnover of €1,650 million. For more information visit: www.altran.com

Dark Arts of Mathemical Deception

Professor Charlie Siefe of NYU, a mathematician debunks clinical trials, and few other items to where data is spun and fools you, every day example, hear about the perfect butt algorithm and more. These are probably some things you have never thought about but again after listening to what he has to say, it’s time to think about being skeptical. Here’s a radio show that also talks about the same topics.

This video digs in a bit further with how fictitious business models are used by banks and companies do this too. The models are so complex that CEOs don’t even understand them. “Quants, The Alchemists of Wall Street will take you through how “math models” work at banks and financial institutions in a way that even the layman can understand. More videos like over at theAlgo Duping/Killer Algorithm Page. Bank of America will also tell you“IT’ is a business” how they make money.

Weapons of Math Destruction

This is a lecture where Kathy O’Neill, a former Quant who worked for a Hedge Fund (Weapons of Math Destruction) on Wall Street will tell you what is done with your retirement money and more. The banks and companies use technology to take advantage because they can. “Of course we are going to take advantage because our tools are our brains…if they could figure out a way to take advantage of pension funds they would, a good interview with explaining smart money and dumb money.

Algorithms Shape The World

This is a very good presentation done a TED Conference and really was the one that got everyone started thinking about algorithms and today it’s talked about a lot. As he says “if you’re an algorithm, life is looking pretty good, but can’t say the same for humans”. What is a black box? Nobody has any control over the flash crash. We have moved forward a bit but still we are writing the unreadable and lost the sense of some of what is happening. Nice plug for Nanex here with research.